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September/October 2002 Spirituality
Finding Spiritual Faith During Trying Times

by Vicky Thompson

Nearly one year after September 11^th, America is still experiencing a crisis of faith. Many Americans have lost their faith in national security, corporate ethics and the church as acts of terror, scandal and abuse continue to rock the foundation of society. As a result, more people are exploring a direct spiritual connection with God to find their faith, and spirituality is becoming more accepted by the mainstream during these trying times.

Eastern, Western or New Age—all spiritual methods are welcome in this search for faith.

During the 1980s, New Age thought entered the American consciousness, forever changing the way we view spirituality. Shirley MacLaine was called the queen of woo-woo for telling us that God exists within us all. This quest for inner spirituality was branded as another fad from California. But over the past two decades, the stigma of New Age spirituality has faded, and is now standard fare on Oprah.

The September 11^th attacks on Americans’ personal security set off a national wake-up call to find comfort in the arms of God. But surprisingly, many people didn’t seek a long-term relationship with God inside of a church. Church attendance increased by 25 percent immediately after 9/11, but dropped again to normal seasonal attendance figures by November 2001, according to Barna Research Group, a California-based Christian market research company.

Where are people going to find God? Many Americans no longer identify with religion.

One out of three adults has turned away from church teachings because of a negative experience with religion, Barna Research Group found. Behind this shift is the search for an experiential faith, a religion of the heart, not of the head, according to American Demographics. They seek a religious expression that downplays doctrine and revels in the direct experience of the divine.

Barna Research Group found that nearly 85 percent of Americans pray weekly, with 47 percent remaining silent during prayer time to listen for God’s response. Whether originating in Eastern or Western traditions, active prayer combined with meditation techniques can promote healing and create a greater self-awareness of the connection between our body, mind and spirit and God. Intentional meditation allows us to experience God on a very personal level.

According to a Harris Poll, 94 percent of people believe in God and 85 percent believe in miracles. I discovered the miraculous hidden wisdom of God when I prayed for help in finding my faith at the turn of the millennium.

I lost my faith when I was a little girl. I was sexually abused by my grandfather when I was a child and this loss of faith continued into my thirties. My Catholic upbringing taught me how to use rote prayer, but it didn’t help in letting go of the pain. So I bypassed the religious teachings of my youth and went directly to God for healing. I finally found my faith when I began using intentional prayer meditation. And that’s when miracles started happening in my life.

Turning inward to heal issues of abuse, I prayed through meditation for God to help release this pain. Through silent moments of communion with God, I began receiving intentional meditations for letting go of old patterns and behaviors in my life.

Intentional meditation uses the mind as a bridge between the body and spirit, aligning your will and intention with God. You focus on inner spiritual qualities and strengths, and then actualize them into physical form. If you focus on love and faith within, you will create those states of being in your physical world. Intentional meditation refocuses our awareness on our inherent spiritual qualities and allows them to become a natural, flowing part of our conscious reality. We can find our faith again by directly seeking and experiencing our inner spirituality.

Here is a simple intentional meditation you can use to strengthen your faith and connect with God during trying times:

Close your eyes, and with each inward breath, see white light pour into the crown of your head, filling your entire body. The light intensifies and pushes all pain and fear out of your feet. Now say, "God, I willingly accept your power and grace to renew my faith and love for myself and all people." Now see a pink light enter your crown, filling your body with its loving embrace. Open your eyes, knowing that you hold God’s grace, love and faith within you.

Faith is always present within us. We only need to remember its power to change our world.

Vicky Thompson helps people open a powerful connection with Spirit. She is the author of The Jesus Path: 7 Steps to a Cosmic Awakening (Red Wheel/Weiser, March 2003) and a meditation CD, Journey to Spiritual Awakening. You can visit her website at www.journeywithspirit.com.